The flying hotel Thunderbird 2: The 700ft super-airship that will gently float you around the world

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | February 2, 2008

[Grizzled Bear]

<<<< standing in corner

It's alright.

But...

What's the price?

[TChad]

refuelled by a form of helium gas.

Let me guess. For obvious reasons, they don't want to admit that they intend to power this thing using hydrogen gas for fuel. So, they call hydrogen a form of helium.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

But helium is a resource that is far far less abundant, lost when used, already very expensive.

I know of a rather large supply of helium, about 93,000,000 miles from here. Just have to separate it from the hydrogen. A few problems with heat, pressure, and gravity, but that is why we have engineers.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

HA! Everyone knows REAL MEN prefer Fireball XL5! A better looking ship, complete with command module and jetbikes. Beat that, sucker! Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!! (I think I've lost it...)

[RJL]

...its designers say it will gently lift 40 passengers into the sky for a serene cruise of the world.

A spokesman for Massaud, AurÈlie Ullrich, said: !The idea at the heart of this project is that passengers can see fantastic places like Thailand and the Caribbean without the need to build ugly hotels everywhere.

"It could land for a few days or for a week if there is a big event going on.

Lets see... a large "ugly" hotel will easily accommodate 2000 guests. Instead of one "ugly" hotel they're going to park these things for perhaps a week, but alas, they only accommodate 40 guests each.

So which is more ugly, a single 2000 guest hotel or having 50 of these things parked all around the city, and those 50 would only take the place of one hotel. Locations with 10 hotels could instead have 500 of these parked all about.

I think it's a neat idea and I'd like to take a world cruise in one, but their marketing should be based in reality.

[xp38]

But Thunderbird 1 launched from under the rollback swimming pool...that has cool points too.

[Stoat]

I think it's a neat idea and I'd like to take a world cruise in one, but their marketing should be based in reality.
 

Unfortunately, their marketing is based upon the reality of their target customer demographic, which is obscenely-wealthy, self-loathing eco-hysteric, Leftist celebrities  :-)

I think that they're the main group that considers amazing engineering achievements such as tall buildings to be "ugly"  :-)

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

EGADS! The world has gone mad.

For fun, I just checked ebay for the price of a fireball XL5 toy I owned as a kid. The guy wants $800 bucks for the thing with a starting price of $500. I’m speechless...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=140202745542&Category=733&_trksid=p3907.m29

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

And I don’t even see the jetbikes included. Boink!

[Stoat]

I see that the seller “shecreature9” sells ONLY very expensive, very rare toys, and she sells A LOT of them, so the asked price may indeed be an accurate reflection of it’s value.

Too bad they don’t make cool metal toys like that anymore....some kid uses a metal toy to cut his playmate’s head off and then nobody else can have nice metal toys anymore :-(

(the item description says “Metal type: Steel” but it looks like it’s plastic)

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

That toy is plastic all the way, unless it differs from the one I had. I was really up on my toys, being a kid at the time, and if SOMEONE had offered an all-metal Fireball XL5 (one of the most popular kid shows of the day) in toy stores, I am certain I would have known about it.

Still, $800. Makes me gasp.

[RedCell]

I always loved the concepts of the different pods that they could select based upon their mission

I was going to say that, too, but I thought you'd all think I was whacked. Glad I'm in good company! Cheers!

[B-Chan]

“Elegance, Charm and Deadly Danger”

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

I was looking at an old "travel" threads and came across this about the flying hotel Thunderbird 2.

The idea at the heart of this project is that passengers can see fantastic places like Thailand and theCaribbean without the need to build ugly hotels everywhere.

Has anyone seen the movie WALL_E? Looks like we are closer to our future than we thought. UGLY hotels? Terrorists will love it!!!

[Stoat]

This will indeed make a tempting target. Muzzy terrorists love to destroy anything that can’t be built by their own “culture”....which is most things.